I am running opensuse 11.0
the system has been stable for weeks now suddenly today my keyboard and mouse do not work from startup.
Any Ideas?
try booting with failsafe
see what happens
No definite solutions. Only questions.
Does the keyboard function when in the Grub menu appears? If so, did you try typing in “3” (no quotes) and boot to run level 3? Does your keyboard work there? Can you log in as a regular user from there? If so, did you try running “su -c yast” (no quotes) to configure your keyboard and mouse?
Is this a Wireless keyboard? Wireless mouse?
USB keyboard? USB mouse?
If USB, have you previously had to set “legacy mode” in BIOS to get it to work? If so, is that setting still in place?
Do you have another OS that you can boot to where the mouse and keyboard still work?
Thanks questions I can answer
OK Keyboard works in grub and if I log in to command line also works.
Computer is a MSI laptop so I do not know how the keyboard talks to the computer but the mouse is a USB.
I have a dual boot and used windows xp earlier in the day without problems.
The touchpad and buttons on the computer work fine.
I tried booting with failsafe it boots to commandline and Keyboard works to login then I startx and desktop opens but no keyboard or mouse.
OK, I take it then you did not try yast per this question (in my previous post)?
I recommend you try yast per the above.
Sorry
I have tried configuring from yast from command line then ran startx (logged in as root) still no luck
I then again started yast (navigating with the mousepad)and selected ,Hardware, Mouse model and this brought up a box with the title " xmessage " the message is
terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘YUIPluginException’
what(): Couldn’t load plug-in qt
YaST got signal 6 at YCP file /usr/share/YaST2/clients/mouse.ycp:79
/sbin/yast2:line421: 4136 Aborted $ybindir/y2base $module “$@” “$SELECTED_GUI” $Y2_GEOMETRY $Y2UI_ARGS
I get simmilar messages if i click on any option under the hardware tab
Please, what model laptop?
It is a MSI 645
I installed 11 all the way through the beta launches and then version 11.0 after release in June and it has worked fine it has suddenly stopped. The only changes I have made are updates via the updater.
Hmmm… I notice a thread here were a MSI 645 user sent their laptop back because the keyboard did not work well under Ubuntu:
Using the MSI Megabook M645 together with Linux - theclaws blog
I still think booting to run level 3 (ie an ascii prompt), logging in as a regular user (NOT as root), then typing “su” to get root permissions, and running “yast” followed by configuring your mouse and keyboard is the best approach. AFter you finish with yast, exit yast, then type “exit” to get rid of root permission. Only then (once back to a regular user) should you type “startx”. NEVER run X as user root.
When it comes time to restart, you will need to restart with: su -c ‘shutdown -r now’
Ok I have followed your suggestion exactly but still no luck
I read the link you sent, he unfortunately does not go into much detail but we must remember I have been running 10.3 and now 11.0 for about 6 months without any of these problems.
I have just booted from the live cd and mouse and keyboard work fine.
I think this bug is only in the installed OS and possibly specific to the GUI,(the released version of KDE4 that came with the cd) and not related to the hardware as everything works in windows, when booting 11.0 from cd and when running from command prompt.
Any Ideas as to what I should try next?
Interestingly, I also had the same issue - but only the keyboard stopped responding. I was able to shut the PC down via the mouse and restart it, and the keyboard worked fine after. (on a no-name desktop PC).
Don’t know if it’s related.
On my laptop (Fujitsu Siemens Amilo) I never had any funny issues so far, with 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and 11.0
Cheers!
Libs
You could check the xorg.conf file used by the live CD and compare that to the one you have in use now.
Another possibility is to roll back your graphic driver to an earlier version, or try the VESA graphic driver, to see if your current graphic driver is impacting your keyboard / mouse (it should not, but I’ve seen stranger things happen).
Hi oldcpu
Ok I have looked at both xorg.conf files and to my untrained eye they look basicaly the same with very few differences
How do I roll back a driver as you suggest (remember I have no keyboard)?
or how do I load the VESA driver (I cannot start yast because I cannot enter the password to get root privliges) or can I load the vesa driver when logged in as root?
From what I understand your keyboard works fine in run level 3 (ie in a text mode). You can get to the text mode by typing “3” (no quotes) when the grub boot menu appears (that is the menu where you choose between a regular boot, fail safe, winXP, … etc … ) . (side track for a bit - it may surprise you that many of us actually run linux in run level 3 all the time, and never use the gui. The text mode is very powerful, and incredibly fast without all the graphical overhead. In particular, if one’s ethernet/internet connection is setup properly, one can access the internet from run level 3 (text mode) ).
When you boot to text mode (run level 3) you should log in as a regular user. NOT as root. Ok ? … When you wish to do activities that require root permissions you can briefly switch to root using the “su” command.
For example, once in text mode (run level 3), you should back up your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Do this by typing (note this is case sensitive):
su -c ‘cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.oldfile’
enter root password when prompted for a password.
To do many things sequentially with root permissions, simply type “su” (no quotes) and enter root password. When you are finished with using root permissions, type “exit” to get rid of root permissions. This is important. Linux is designed to be easy to change things (once you know how) but it is so easy, you can trash your setup completely. Hence many things are restricted such that you must first get root permissions to make the changes. (This is also done for security reasons).
So, to try a VESA driver (after you backed up your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file), simply type “su” (no quotes enter root password), then type:
**sax2 -p **
make note if your graphic card is chip0 or chip1. Assuming chip-0, then type:
sax2 -r -m 0=vesa
and setup your graphics. Note that is “zero” equals vesa. If your card chip was 1 instead of zero, the command would be “sax2 -r -m 1=vesa”
Also, rather than try sax2, instead you could type “yast” and an ascii/text version (just as powerful as the gui version) will appear. You can navigate thru that with arrow and tab keys.
Once you are finished with root permissions, type “exit”. Your prompt should change from a " # " (and in red) to a " > " (not in red) to confirm you are no longer root. You can also type “whoami” (no quotes) to confirm you are no longer root.
One can also change their driver (being used) by hand edits to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, using an ascii/text editor. There are also other sax2 commands for changing one’s graphic driver.
To test your gui type “startx” (no quotes) and see if your keyboard/mouse work. Note if you get a background with a bunch of bombs, then you have ignored my advice, and you are asking for lots of difficulty down the road.
When finished with the GUI, exit the GUI (which will take you back to the ascii/text prompt). To restart your PC from there, type:
su -c ‘shutdown -r now’
or to shutdown your PC type:
su -c ‘shutdown -h now’
entering root password when prompted.
Note the command “su” switches users, and if the user name is not specified, the command assumes you wish to switch to the administrator.
Just a clarification on this, you need to run “yast” with root permissions. So type “su” first (enter root password), then type “yast”, then do what you need to do in yast, then exit yast, and when back at the prompt type “exit” to get rid of root permissions.
Thanks That is good info, I will try a bit later and then post what happens.
Hi oldcpu
Ok I have tried changing to a VESA driver as per your post still no Keyboard or mouse.
Do you have any other suggestions?
Were you able to get a desktop GUI with the VESA driver? With the VESA driver selected, did you also try booting to the desktop via Fail Safe settings?
It would be much more helpful if you could isolate what caused the problem. I am a BIG believer in “cause and effect”.
You noted originally " the system has been stable for weeks now suddenly today my keyboard and mouse do not work from startup " can you identify specifically (exact rpm and exact version) what you “might have” installed to cause this? That would help take all this guess work out, and I really hate this guessing approach that I have been forced to do in trying to help. Now in my case I always take written notes, and when a significant problem happens on my PCs, I write down the date/time and the details of the problem. That helps me when searching for the cause. For example, if you now boot to run level-3 (you know how to do that now) and type:
rpm -qa --last
you will see a list of all the rpms you installed scroll by very fast. To view those, you could instead type:
rpm -qa --last > /windows/C/installed-rpms.txt
Then reboot to windows (using the su -c ‘shutdown -r now’ and in your C: drive open the file “installed-rpms.txt” with a text editor). Please note precisely what were the last group of applications (and their version numbers) that you installed before this problem occurred. 
Maybe its possible to roll back to an older version.
Another thought, … I am assuming that the mouse/keyboard still work ok in MS-Windows with no problem? What happens if you shutdown the PC, and remove the battery, … put the battery back in, and boot to Linux? Same problem?
I am assuming in the above that you have your windows C: drive mounted under /windows/C and that you have read/write permissions on that drive. If you do not, then you will need to redirect the output of “rpm -qa --last” to another directory where you have write permissions.
Thanks Again for the help
yes I was able to get a GUI desktop with the VESA driver selected I will go check the last installed rpms and post again.